Final pretrial conference for second woman accused in starving boy case continued

Friday

Apr 12, 2013 at 3:15 AMApr 12, 2013 at 8:13 AM

By Liz Markhlevskayalmark@fosters.com

DOVER — The final pretrial conference for Peggy Starr, accused of making a young boy sit naked in a snowbank during winter, has been continued to a later date.

Starr, 55, a former New Durham resident, is facing two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of second-degree assault, a Class B felony, alleging she caused the boy to suffer lacerations after she hit him with a spatula in 2009.The final pretrial conference for the three charges had been scheduled for Thursday morning, but the conference was continued and no new date had been set as of late Thursday afternoon.The two endangering the welfare of a child charges, which are Class A misdemeanors, allege that Starr made the young boy sit in a snow bank naked, and also placed him naked in a spring, in winter 2010.Starr, whose address is now listed as being 165 Stage Road in Nottingham, is also facing a Class A felony first-assault charge, alleging that she, in concert with her daughter, caused the boy's “failure to thrive” by not providing him proper nutrition while he was under her care, between August 2008 and April 2010.

In February, Starr's daughter, Christina Thomas, was found guilty of starving the young boy for a period of several years at her New Durham home. Thomas, who was found guilty of the first-degree assault charge after a three-week-long trial, will have a sentencing hearing May 15.

Thomas is currently awaiting her sentencing at Strafford County jail, and Starr is free on $10,000 personal recognizance bail.

The victim in the case, who is now 9 years old, is the son of a woman with a developmental disability, who lived at Thomas' New Durham home on Birch Hill Road over the course of several years. During Thomas' trial, the woman claimed Thomas had deprived her son of food, and abused both her and the young boy.

The boy is currently in an open adoptive relationship with his biological mother, and has reportedly gained weight since being adopted.